Question

4. How have presidential powers increased relative to congressional powers?

Answer 1

• Presidential power has steadily increased, particularly over the past century.Compare that to the tremendously powerful Presidents we see today--something has certainly changed.
• The War Powers Act was one such change, as it allowed the President to initiate military activity. Previously, only Congress could send the military into action, and Executive Orders are another example, because Presidents have been abusing those for a rather long time. Initially, they were more or less just special notes that the President fixed onto a bill as he signed it into law.
• Now, they basically are laws, which undermines the entire system of checks and balances. The President was never meant to legislate, and Executive Orders now allow the President to do so.
• As the nation's economy grew, the government needed to assume a larger regulatory role. As the world shrank, enabling the United States to increase its international presence, the federal government needed to expand its diplomatic presence.
• And many of the new demands placed on government could not be easily met by Congress. Take foreign policy, for example.
• And even complicated domestic legislation can be difficult for Congress to manage. When confronting the scientific complexities of environmental supervision or the financial intricacies of banking regulation, Congress's 535 members rarely manage to agree on more than the broad outlines of a legislative proposal.
• Consequently, many of the details are left for the president to work out after he is handed the bill for implementation. The president gets to decide how to prioritize the legislation's content and how to interpret its critical sections.
• And the president also possesses the authority to appoint the staff that will oversee or run any agency or board created by the congressional act.
  
• Thus there was a certain "natural" tendency for the presidency to expand as history progressed. But there were other factors contributing to the growth of the office, as well. For example, the presidency is more unified than the legislative branch. The executive office centers on one person and therefore, the office more easily speaks with one voice.